Well, it’s official. The next frontier for brain research isn’t found in some fancy lab rig. It isn’t about a new way of tracking electrical impulses sent through synapses. No. It’s wearing tight pant and shoulder pads, trotting onto the field after halftime.

Do you suppose it’s merely coincidence, or is Paul Allen trying to cancel out the moral smirch of causing football-related brain injuries by funding research into traumatic brain injury? In November, Microsoft cofounder Allen announced a $2.37 million dollar gift to be shared jointly by Washington State University and Allen’s own Allen Institute for Brain Science.